[katandbob]

I was reading another thread and a comment that leapt out to me from the people who are yet to make the move across to NZ - from what ever country you reside in at the minute - was the prospect of a better work to leisure time ratio that they hoped to achieve............ :confused: :confused:

So here is my question to all residents who are in NZ .....


how many of you have actually achieved a better work to leisure time ratio??


I picked NO - I work more hours/less pay ......and that goes for both me and Rob, I have 2 horses, that I have no time to ride, and there are so many DIY bits to do that I spend what little time I have doing those. (on a brighter note - we had 3 chicks hatch yesterday!) :nice1 :exit

I am hopeful that this will change eventually, and Rob has a choice of Jobs/work places around him that he can move if his situation doesn't improve.

I am NOT saying that we are worse off here - Just that we were naieve to think that we would be able to not have to work constantly to pay the bills etc and I am curious to see if we are the only ones that have found this out the hard way.....

Rgds Kat

[Singel]

OH and I work the normal office hour and our salary is good enough to pay the mortgage.

We bought a new build 2 years ago. There is nothing we need to do for the house so we have more leisure time in our hand.

I opt for "Yes with comments".









Oooophs ! :o our back garden is still a blank canvas............... hmmmm :roll :uhoh

[katandbob]

OH and I work the normal office hour and our salary is good enough to pay the mortgage.

We bought a new build 2 years ago. There is nothing we need to do for the house so we have more leisure time in our hand.

I opt for "Yes with comments".


Oooophs ! :o our back garden is still a blank canvas............... hmmmm :roll :uhoh
Thanks for the comments to go with your reply...I did wonder if people would post/admit their true feelings about this....and I tell you, a blank canvas or a big garden with a few bits in....Weeds love em all!....I am seriously thinking of getting an animal that will eat the lawn...shame you cant get one that eats but dosn't Poop out the other end :laugh

[Trigirl]

i haven't voted as i haven't started work in NZ yet - but i currently have a better work life balance (no job till end of jan!!!)

after that who knows. but with commuting going from 3hrs30 a day to at most 30mins a day i expect its got to improve a bit at least. to be honest though i tend to find i enjoy working and if i spend more time working thats fine. i wouldn't consider that to detract from my quality of life. i just used to really resent wasting so many hours of my life squashed on a smelly dirty train or tube. can't see that happening here ;)

[Jenny & Mark]

I also can't vote yet as we are not in NZ yet, but I am currently commuting 2 hours a day (teacher and bus driver :)). With a much shorter commute, I expect more home time.

Mark.

[wiki]

I'm another one not working yet, but I know I can't get the exchange rate equivalent of my UK wage in NZ. My rent/mortgage will be lower in NZ than it is here, but I think (and hope) I'll probably be about the same ... *fingers crossed*

Great poll idea!

[willsken]

I can't vote but I will be living a lot closer to work. I won't earn as much but I will have a lot lower mortgage.

[KerryS]

I voted Yes - I have a much better lifestyle, far more leisure time and a well paid job. But I work hard and don't actually like or enjoy my work a great deal - I do it because it brings in the money that allows me to have a great life once I walk out the door.

[Smiler]

Yes - with comments.

We work hard here but spread in a different way. Lots to do in the morning when the US is still on line and again in the evening when UK and Europe wake up. I usually start work a couple of hours before OH. (can you hear him snoring now?)

We have no commute, no season ticket expenses, it's 60 ft down the hall. We can pop out for lunch, do jobs in the garden, pop to the beach etc in the afternoon and work a bit more after dinner.

But we run our own business now. I'm not driving up and down the A3/M25 anymore and just leaving that full time job gained me 2 hours + on a good day. OH isn't contracting in Brussels, Bristol or anywhere else beginning with B.

We always need an internet connection and always have a laptop on holiday etc, but here we can go away for a few days and still manage the company and have a holiday. We never managed that successfully in the UK.

We've just achieved one of our biggest contracts, we wrote the expression of interest/proposal sitting in a B&B in Christchurch earlier this year.

We have both taken a huge paycut but our lifestyle has changed for the better and we have achieved a huge change in our work to leisure ratio. :nice1

I'm lovin' it.

[Marco]

Hi,

First of all: thanks for this nice thread!

I voted NO, because I work more days than I used to. Parttime work is not readily available and I need to work fulltime as well because of the salary. We both work fulltime to be able to live reasonbly, but do nothave the same amount of leisure time. Although we live in the city, we spend more time commuting to/from work, because we had hardly any travel time before our move.

Moreover, in The Netherlands we had 6 - 8 weeks holiday time a year, while here I only have 3!! When you count that in it is even worse. We can't afford all those holidays anymore (money/timewise), but do not care about this at all because we have seen a lot of the world already.

We just returned from a trip around the South Island with relatives from overseas and didnot get paid for this time off, since we recently started our jobs. But the trip was great and a good reason to spend more holidays in NZ - at least during the first 10? years.

Hopefully things will change in the future (a few years from now).

I need to add that is voted NO, but that I was aware of most of these things before we moved here.

Cheers,
Anita

[ruthyroo]

Hmm I went for Yes - with lower pay. I earn a bit less, but don't do the crazy commuting, travel and weekend / evening work that I used to - but that's more a function of doing a different job here in NZ. And I agree with the above post re. holidays - working for a Uni in the Uk I used to get 5 weeks minimum AL plus a lot of flexi hours / working at home time, that my miserable 15 days AL here cannot compare to! So maybe I should have been 'Yes with comments'.

[jess]

Me - same hours, same pay (still work for US company)
OH - fewer hours, same pay at a job here in NZ

Opted for Yes - Other

Well... when I put same pay for OH, that's a bit misleading since he actually earns more per hour here in NZ than he did in the states. Since I'm making US money I still think about the exchange rate. Figuring in the exchange, he makes the same as the states.

[Brijan]

Yes
I work slightly longer hours with a little less pay but Don't have to work weekends, public holidays, evenings or be on call as i was in the uk working for British gas
Plus i can wear shorts in the summer - not a pretty sight :laugh
Brian

[Singel]

..............I am seriously thinking of getting an animal that will eat the lawn...shame you cant get one that eats but dosn't Poop out the other end :laugh
:laugh

[Rabbit]

We both work much longer hours for alot less money.

As we are immigrants on a bond, we have to make up for all the staff and skills shortages, if we quit then we have to pay-back money so you could say we feel exploited.

I am told NZ'rs work as hard as the Japenese.

The people above me delegate downwards, the people below me upwards and I get sqeazed.

When I delegate downwards, first I have to spell-out, what I want them to do, then they come back and ask how to do it. Then they go off sick and then I have to do it for them.

Then I tell my boss we dont have any resources, then he says yes we do, we have got you, get on and do it, oh, and by the way can you do this, this and this, and have you not finished that yet?

Thank god for weekends - I just sleep

[mossum]

Well I feel a little guilty now....

But I'm the one who picked the 1st option , I love my job & its pretty well paid comparativly . We have far far more disposable income& time here in NZ than we ever did in the UK . I negotiated for more holidays at interview & got them ! I start earlier but finish earlier too - so I can enjoy the evenings . I dont do a 2nd job as I did in the UK . If i work overtime - I get paid for it - in fact I get told off because I don't claim it . I used to work extra everyday in the UK & it was never paid - I bet it was 6+ hours a week - & thats loads over the year .

Naturally having no children helps with free time . We realise we are extremly lucky to be in the financial position we are in , we don't take it for granted though .

vic

[Avalon]

Ive gone for yes-other.

Bit of a mixed bag for us, so it doesnt fit into the other categories. I dont work, but then I was giving up my job back home anyway - so this is regarding my Husbands situation.

His last job (that hes just got made redundant from) was dull, boring, repetitve and generally not much cop. But he did get paid pretty well. He didnt work over 40 hours, so that was good, but a new boss came in and seemed to think that he should work way over that and be grateful for the opportunity. Thankfully - the redundancy came through just after that - so thats been a good save! The commute is less, but still nearly 2 hours each way - something we felt was acceptable in order to live here in the Wairarapa. On saying that - he can get home and sit in the Jacuzzi with a glass of something if he wants.

This compares with the old UK job, which, while high on hours, was better paid, and more importantly one he loved. It was hard, interesting and kept him on his toes and having to work at a very high level.

So - onwards and upwards and hes looking for the next job.

HTH

Hxxx

[Trigirl]

rabbit - that sounds awful. how long are you on this "bond" for?

[Rabbit]

Two years on the bond - 16 months to go

[Avalon]

Two years on the bond - 16 months to go
I really hope I dont sound totally thick - but what is a bond?

:o

[incredible hulse]

I recently went to a conference which had an economist speaking - very smart cookie; Kiwi who had been to Harvard, etc. Anyway he had lots of slides which were basically saying that NZ companies had to raise their game in a big way with regards investment, training, wages, R&D, etc if they wanted to compete in the world and that using the small country excuse was not relevant and gave examples of Ireland, Finland and a few others. One if the most poignant facts he had though was that NZ workers are close to the top of OECD nations in terms of hours worked, yet they are also very close to the bottom in terms of worker output. I kind of agree to this from what I've seen - I certainly have a longer working week here (than in UK) but don't think the work (IT based) is anywhere near the same level in terms of complexity or output.

[sarahw]

We went for yes but earn less (but that was part of our original plan - we didn't come over blinkered that we were going to earn more money in NZ than in the UK).

I changed jobs from being a manager in the electronics industry in quite a high position in a very well-paid job, to working in conservation originally 4 days a week whilst I studied, then it went to 3 days a week which was heaven & I'm currently on maternity leave. I LOVE having the extra time, plus the job was nowhere near as stressful as the previous job I did and there was no overseas travel which suited me down to the ground after travelling most weeks in Europe.

My husband changed jobs he went down a rung to move over here in the construction industry - he's hoping to move back up soon. He earns about 2/3 of the money he earned in UK. ...But he gets home early on Fridays - and he's home to feed, bath & put our daughter to bed every night (5.30pm-5.45pm) - in UK he would have only seen her on weekends due to getting home late every night after work travelling out from London.

We sat out on the weekend with a glass of wine contemplating how much better off we are living here & the verdict was we have a lot of very good things out here - they may not be monetary but money isn't everything - having time for your kids & wife & time to relax is probably more valuable for us than extra cash in the bank - we certainly don't go without.

[Trigirl]

avalon - i assume by bond rabbit means he has to pay back emigration costs that the company have paid him if he leaves within a certain time. my company is the same - they paid all my emigration costs but obviously that means i can't just up and off to a new job as soon as i feel like it!

[Avalon]

Ah - thanks for explaining that.
Appreciate it!